Singular Tactics
by KeepingThemAtBay
Summary: Action packed, quick paced, and full of Transformers glory. Singular Tactics tells a tale about friendship, fate, corruption, duplicity, and what it takes to be a hero during the darkest of times
1. Prologue

**Singular Tactics**

_By KeepingThemAtBay_

Final Version: November 2013

**The Transformers Franchise belongs to Paramount Pictures and Hasbro. I only own my own characters and this plot line.**

**Trailer: TBA**

**Storyline will follow to _Transformers: Age of Extinction_ if possible**

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**Prologue**

A humanoid figure with gleaming edges and white shining eyes watched what was spinning in the upright portal of pixelated light. Images of a flashing battle saturated with washes of blinding red and destruction swam before him. The being watched in growing misunderstanding and helplessness as his people slaughtered themselves like animals.

"You still don't understand brother? You can clearly see the sign, the prophecy has already begun."

The first turned around to see another being materialize through the dim. The new arrival's white gold optics held a tinge of mirth at his brother's expense of misunderstanding and confusion. He was shorter and slightly younger than the first with a welcoming aurora, he moved to stand behind the first's left flank.

"I am the Watcher; I should be able to see everything and anything about our people," replied the white eyed one to his brother, Companion.

Companion glanced at the Watcher. "You _are_ _just _the Watcher, and nearly everything is beyond your control and sight," he chortled at his older brother's glare. "But the First Shattering _is _beginning, and we cannot do anything to change it. Sentry has waited a millennium for these events to initiate. There is much uncertainty about these events, perhaps, if you do not understand the prophecy, why do you not talk to him?"

Watcher ground his jaw, debating. After a moment of silence and a mute battle playing before them, he whisked his hand through the pixelated light and the imagery collapsed into a jaded star that hovered on his right flank. "Lead the way Companion," Watcher said with his full attention on his brother.

Companion bowed and he took off through the dim of Watcher's sanctuary. Like a dissipating fog, the dim lifted to allow the expanse of the night sky shine through. The beings walked on an invisible pathway as miniature stars of all sizes and colors pulsed around them. Cyan liquid energy wove through the clusters of stars that hummed faint tunes, and colored sand shimmered like a rainbow spectrum as starlight reflected against it. It was a beautiful nebula-like scene, but with thousands of sparks and energies weaving them together in the song of life.

The two walked between the sparks with a destination in mind. Companion smiled at the few that pulsed in greeting, while Watcher glanced at the memory fragments only he could see in the reflecting sand. His jaded star wobbled constantly, on the verge of opening the portal to allow complete access to the memories, but Watcher withheld the urge to view them.

They reached a point where their forms slid into another dimension, entering the Sentry's sanctuary.

Twisted pillars of rare metals etched with designs rose and scraped the sky, and sparks of orange flame coasted lazily as they defied gravity, illuminating the way. The ground was solid, a beautiful dark bronze engraved with glyphs and seams of beating gold shined beneath the thin layer of shifting sand. The two brothers moved forward, and the flames and sand moved away from their presences like a parting sea. Watcher observed all this with bewilderment; it had been a long time since he had seen his brother Sentry.

Sentry was seated on the floor in the center of the sanctuary, legs crossed, and the orange ranks on his spine and upper arms gleamed spider web thin. When he heard his brothers enter, orange eyes, like the warmth of the sun, opened in disbelief.

"Watcher, I have not expected you to visit," called Sentry's smooth voice. He moved to his feet in a liquid-like motion and stood before his older brother and bowed respectfully. "Why have you graced me with your wonderful presence?"

"Companion has informed me that you know of the First Shattering," Watcher informed politely.

"A new era is about to begin," Sentry said with a glint in his eye. "One in darkness and hope, just as Prime had prophesied."

"And it begins with the release of the Great Spark?" asked Watcher quietly. He motioned to his jaded star and it expanded to create a pixelated portal. Sentry watched the artifact in the light preparing to jettisoned off the planet; there was thoroughness and sadness in the people who moved around it. Then the image blurred and he could see the same artifact hurtling through the cosmos as distant stars illuminated the glyphs on its sides.

"Yes, it begins with the release," confirmed Sentry. "As much as it pains me to see our people become conflicted like this, I know that there are greater things in stored for them." Sentry opened his palm and a flame glided into it. He crushed the light between his fingers and threw the sparks out between two pillars. They rearranged themselves like a blizzard of fireflies, imaging what Sentry had to say. "For the longest of time, I have looked for those worthy of housing the Great Spark prior to the First Shattering, as it has been my duty since the sealing of the Matrix. I have viewed many worlds, but in the end, I came back to the one where our brother betrayed us."

A terrestrial planet with swirling clouds and vast oceans constructed out of the pinpoints of light, and a small barren moon orbited the planet.

"Why would you pick this world to become the shield of the Great Spark? Strong evil radiates there and the Great Spark would become tainted," cut in Watcher with a sharp tongue. "You are making a mistake."

Companion shushed the eldest brother, and kindly told him to listen to what Sentry had to say.

"There is the risk of that, and the Matrix can only prevent so much. But I know this is the right planet, because I see something else in this race," the youngest brother said proudly. "They are much like us, and their worth is stronger than we first realized. They have much hope unlike our people. They have hope for a better future, regardless of their intentions." Watcher dismissed the pinpoints of light and they faded away. "Our people will come looking for the Great Spark, since they see it as an item of power. It will only be a matter of time before they get their hands on it. When the time is right, I'll decide what to do with what is left of the Great Spark."

Watcher's eyes widened in fear and realization, "You mean the Great Spark is to be destroyed? Our people's war will never end, and will slaughter each other until they cease to exist!"

"Tis the price of the wicked," Companion said. "But it sounds like you know something more."

"I do," said Sentry evenly. "But that is not something for you to fret over."


	2. The Ups and Downs of Maintenance

**A/N: **Reviews are greatly appreciated, they help fuel the process and keep me motivated. Chapters are short due to my writing style. Also, sorry past readers and my three current followers, I edited and butchered up the previous ones to make them much better. It was my failure, but I've learned from it, hopefully you'll enjoy these new ones.

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**Part I**

**The Ups and Downs of Maintenance**

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**Northern Cybertron: The Factory – Mining Operations**

**Rotations before All Spark Jettison **

Commander Magarm felt like control and his sanity was slipping through his digits. All because of the two idiot Autobot soldiers Command decided to ship up here, Skids and Mudflap. They were already causing a list of continuous problems and hindering the Factory's operations, a fact Magarm cannot tolerate.

"Ugh, I swear I am going to permanently offline those too," growled Magarm, who usually had a very optimistic personality. He was reading another report about _another_ incident the troublemaking mini twins had caused on the holographic display before him. Attached to the same file was a growing list of complaints from maintenance. Comments like having them shipped down to the mines where they would hopefully offline and annoyances about the problems they caused. "Shieldswing, is there _anything _you can do about those two?" asked Magarm in exasperation.

The mech Magarm was asking turned to face his commander. His tall, broad, and stock steady shieldframe was intimidating to some, since the dark silver and gray colors were usually associated with the Decepticons. But the rank of the Autobot Protection Force set him, Magarm, and others apart from the usual Autobot soldiers, and identified him as a friend.

"Sending them to the mines would be a disaster," he bluntly said. "They'll collapse the tunnels by just _looking_ at them." The tall mech turned back to his display and he whisked the data over to Magarm. "I'd suggest assigning them to 'protect' the storage levels, primarily the Junk Closet. It'll keep them busy until we can rotate them out again. If that's possible."

"Ah the Junk Closet, why didn't I think about that before?" hummed Magarm at his captain's suggestion. The commander closed the file down and opened his protected channels index. He quickly selected a few glyphs and sent the order over to Deadguy who was watching the idiots and notified the infrastructure mainframe about the trade request. Deadguy replied with a thankful glyph that bordered relief.

Magarm signed off his station and he stepped off the communication deck. "We stand guard over one of the most valuable resources for the army; _specialized solid alloys_. Valuable ore, unprocessed, raw and rare. After all my years being in the bridgework, you begin to realize how important it is. It's bigger than energon if I may add," The black and orange moved about the open space room, checking readouts and tossing suggestions while talking to whomever to relieve pent-up stress, which usually was Shieldswing. "We process and ship out hundreds of tons of weapons, armor plating, medical supplies, even holographic plasma reserves and disputers. And for all that, what do I get? Respect? No much."

Shieldswing glided behind Magarm's right flank as he read a holoscreen datapad. "It is the Autobot's fault that they don't realize our potential. If it weren't for us, they would have lost six energon rigs in the past stellar orbit. The loss would have affected rations in their sector by at least sixty percent until a retaliation party took possession. They simply do not appreciate our efforts to supply the frontlines."

"Thank you Shieldswing, at least a mech gets what I'm saying," Shieldswing just rolled his eyes at his commander's antics. "Honestly, for all we do, they send out two slagframes, not the appropriate soldiers I asked from Communications. Worth nothing besides scrap metal."

"At least scrap metal is worth something in a war," called Shieldswing after his commander. Magarm waved at him and the riggerframe headed towards the production charts. A riggerframe meant he could suspend himself from buildings on grappling hooks and withstand jarring impacts. Magarm had the thick shoulders of a construction mech and his wrists and waist hooks were painted orange while the rest of his frame was a near-black soot color.

"MAG! We have a situation!"

The tall shieldframe and the commander turned around to see a sturdy short femme running towards them. The dull bronze and gray and black plating seemed to warp the light around her in perfect camouflage and her optics were protected behind tinted filters, dimming the light. She was equipped well and heavily armored to the Spec Ops division and moved with rushed authority. A datapad in the standard blocky yellow construction case was tucked under her arm, meaning she had just came from the rough atmosphere of the mines.

Ativii nearly threw the datapad at the commander as she caught her breath. The riggerframe read what was on the screen of the datapad, and he realized the mines were in a quandary.

"When did this happen?" demanded Magarm.

"Minutes ago," she vented and rubbed her helm. "I ran up here as fast as I could. We need to evacuate the building ASAP."

Magarm handed Shieldswing the datapad as he briskly moved up to the command mezzanine, ignoring the last part of Ativii's statement. The commander ordered his lieutenants to bring up camera feeds and status reports while looking for a breach on their landscape sensor network. Shieldswing opened his channel index on his HUD, preparing to send orders via comlink to the squadrons as soon as he had his.

"Why didn't you comlink us?" he asked.

Ativii's engine revved in frustration and graphite particles fell off her shoulders with the motion. "In case you haven't notice, there's nothing on the radio frequencies. Everything's cut off with the mines!"

"It's true," confirmed a communications mech who overheard her statement. "All external antennas are down in the area. I-I don't understand why, but we still have auxiliary comlinks."

"What about squadron radios?" demanded Magarm to the communications expert on the mezzanine.

"Their online sir, but the range is limited."

Ativii grabbed the stair railing that led up to the command mezzanine, and called out to the commander in a tone that demand she be heard. "Magarm, you have to get everyone out of here. And you have to do it now. That- that thing down there hasn't reached the Factory yet, but when it does, it's going to rip this place to shreds."

"Sir, she's right," replied an analyst. The holographic maps around the walls flashed with a moving red target. The map's rotated to show a depth scale as the phenomena dug rising and falling tunnels, then they zoomed out to show the underground city of the mines as it neared closer. "The Driller has infiltrated the mines!"


	3. Stuck in a Tight Place

**A/N:** While prowling through transformers wiki to get more character bio, I came across and interesting concept introduced in the Dark of the Moon novelization and live action movies. Re-engineered Cybertronian Wildlife. If you'd like to know more about it, search it up or leave a review and I'd be happy to share.

**Stuck in a Tight Place**

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**The Factory – Hardpress Mining Operations Sector 4**

**Before the Driller Breach**

Turbulence moved through the dark tunnels of the mines with Ultraviolet slinking beside him. An external low powered light swung from his servo and his chest lamps pierced through the darkness and illuminated the clear-cut and truss supported walls. The Hardpress Mining division operated through the lowest levels of northern Cybertron. With most of the destroyed city-state capitals in the south, the north still had pockets of unprocessed metal deep beneath the surface where cities had yet to expand to. Rigs and pumps surged through the lowest depths just before the core, drawing from the enerifers that held accumulating energon incased in shard caverns below the mining tunnels.

Besides the pair, the removed material rushed away on a conveyor belt towards the center of the underground workforce. Heavy machinery and mining class frames appeared around the corner in a cocoon of warm light and heat. A few mechs shouted orders and warnings to change direction, but most preferred using internal comlinks to communicate over the constant thumping and drilling. Lined before the end of the tunnel, Captains and scanners watched to make sure the solid iron wall wouldn't collapse and kill them all.

The re-engineered wildlife besides Turbulence stopped and watched the ceiling in question; something was pinging on the edge of his sensors. Graphite hung heavy in the air and it clung to the piping along the ceiling, making everything look worn out in. Ultravoliet's sharp paneling flared along his back as he scanned the mine's ceiling in a detailed scan. Once complete, the short quadruped sent the x-ray scan to Turbulence, and attached it to a question.

"I was not aware that we were drilling beneath a tunnel?"

"Cause we're not," replied Turbulence over the comlink. "I'll see what's going on."

Turbulence worked his way between equipment and cases of tools to reach the drilling captain. "Why are we drilling beneath another tunnel?" he shouted. The captain, who was caught by surprise, looked at him like he was crazy.

"Another T-line, ten feet above us!" clarified Turbulence.

The captain ordered the heavyset driller to stop via radio link. The giant piece of machinery slowed down, as its quad engines whirred and cooled slowly in descending tones. The other mechs looked at Turbulence, noticed his chief sector badge, and listened to what he had to say.

"Drilling under a T-line that's ten feet above us? Have you crashed your processor?" asked the captain loudly over the dim of the other sectors activity.

"No, I haven't. Got it checked last seventh-rotation," Turbulence said, throwing in a bit of dry humor. "Get a mech to scan the ceiling, you'll see what I mean."

The captain ordered a mech to set up a tripod scanner. A red dot flashed on the scanner, paused, then it started to shrill. Slowly at first, then increasing in pitch and frequency.

"What the scrap is going on?" yelled the captain. He checked the scanner and swore under his breath. The ceiling supports began to shake and a deep rumbling roared through the tunnel, something was coming right for them. There was a deathly loud crunch, then a giant twisting head of metal sliced through the ceiling.

"Run!" bellowed the captain.

The ginormous tapeworm's spinning gears sheared through the equipment. The thick plated armor split and buckled like tin and its still hot engines exploded ruptured fuel lines. Mechs scrambled like insects, running as fast as they could in the low clearance mines away from the fire and the creature. The Driller, one of the largest and most feared Cybertronian wildlife, turned and shrieked at the fleeing backs of the miners. Drilling lights on the beast flashed against the retroreflectors on the miner's armor, it honed in and revved in excitement.

The Driller reared, engine gunning harshly before it screeched again and flashed down the shaft. The saw-tooth shell cut and sliced through the electricity cables and coolant lines hanging along the ceiling, severing electricity and darkening the tunnel even more. The sparks and explosions from the ruptured lines lit the Drillers ugly serrated cogs as its head bobbed and waved and cornered the miners.

Ultraviolet was way ahead of the mob of fleeing miners, looking for an escape, but Turbulence was caught in the middle of the mob. A mech two miners ahead of him stumbled, and his heavy pede flattened the smaller mech's leg below his hip joint. The sector chief glanced back to see the pour soul who had fallen, but he knew he could do nothing for him. Soon the mech's yellow frame disappeared in the prickly spinning frenzy of death, and the sound of grinding armor between blades spurred the group's fear of being eaten alive.

Ultraviolet ran past an access point and he wheeled around to open the low clearance doors. The bobcat-like quadruped had the doors open in seconds and comlinked Turbulence. "There's an access point a hundred yards from your location on your right," said Ultraviolet quickly. "Have whoever can fit get out of the mines and get them to seal off the Center. We'll lead the Driller away into the barren tunnels."

"Copy that!" shouted Turbulence. The sector chief pushed himself harder to get ahead of the mob. The white retroreflectors on his light gray armor suddenly appeared before the group as he directed them into the access point. The miners turned sharply and crammed through the small doorframe like cablerats.

"C'mon!" commanded Turbulence to his partner. The two of them took off running again.

The reflecting strips on their frames caught the Driller's attention and it turned on them as they sprinted down a fork in the tunnel. The giant beast screeched and picked up speed in the slightly taller tunnel until it was soon on their heels.

"Got any ideas!?" squawked Turbulence aloud.

Ultraviolet didn't answer, but a shoulder port opened up and a small Gatling gun transformed to rest on a swivel. The targeting laser spied a heat vent rising through the floor and it locked on and opened fire.

A spray of bullets ripped through the pipe causing steam to instantly fill the tunnel. The Driller's lights illuminated the haze in a creamy color while it hide the Cybertronians, but it failed to distract the brute.

After picking up on what Ultraviolet was doing, Turbulence pulled out a few flash grenades from his subspace. He yanked out the pins and threw them into an old side shaft. The grenades flashed and clattered vociferously in the close encounters.

The metal tapeworm rotated and turned as it charged up the shaft towards the surface, believing its prey had escaped that way. Turbulence and Ultraviolet skidded to a stop and listened as the churning mass of teeth rose through the confines. In a matter of seconds, all that was left was the irritating pitch of blades striking against plating as it climbed.

Turbulence bent over, vented heavily to try to cool his overheated core. He looked at his partner and they both shared laughed regardless of the deathly situation.

"I didn't think I would make it because you're so slagging fast," panted Turbulence. He coughed roughly to clear debris from his intake values and brushed off the moist graphite from his hands. "We gotta follow it. Who knows where it's going."

Ultraviolet growled in complaint.

"I know, I know. We just ran our pedes off, but look at that."

Behind them, the Driller had left a twisting, crumbling, wake of destruction. Cross supports stooped and swung on thin cables with showers of yellow sparks cascading from snapped live wires. Fires glowed and sparkled off the moisture in the air and warning lights pulsed on the sealant doors as they tried to close off the injured tunnel.

"If we don't have a visual on the Driller, no one will know where it's going. It moves too fast for the sector sensors to pick up on it, but you have the best tracking skills I know of UV."

The robocat huffed and trotted ahead towards a working lift. Turbulence took that as an agreement and he keyed in the access code to the lift. They rode up to the upper levels while warning the other sectors about the Driller's location. Hopefully, Central could contact the Factory and get help to take the creature down.

Though, the two of them never heard the second, identical roar coming from the other end of the tunnel when they stepped on the lift.


	4. Tunnel Chases

**A/N: **Part One is almost over, I will edit these chapters really well once I have finished writing them.

**Tunnel Chases**

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The lift carried Ultraviolet and Turbulence to the main traffic levels in a matter of seconds. During that time Turbulence tried to contact the Factory, although he was only getting a burst of static from the antenna boosters to the surface, he was able to contact Clocker.

Clocker was over the new zip-drones system throughout Hardpress' main traffic lanes. The zip-drones were simple AI carriers mounted on copper seamed rails that crisscrossed the heavy traffic lanes for equipment transportation. They monitored and watched the open traffic tunnels and acted as laser guides for the single function reader equipment on the machinery as they drove down the tunnels without officer assistance.

Turbulence knew that the traffic lanes led straight to the Center of the mine that was located directly below the core of the Factory. This Driller would head for the traffic lanes at some point and he hoped that they could catch the churning mass of saw teeth with the zip-drones and follow its path of destruction.

The lift jolted to a stop and the steel plank dropped to let Ultraviolet and Turbulence off. After Ultraviolet ran a quick scan on their surroundings, they headed straight for the mainframe monitor station across from the lift. Clocker was already there with Microburst, another four-legged re-engineered wildlife splitframe. A prickly, tailless lizard like creature with four green optics and a wide clasp lock spine turned to look at the sector chief and his partner. A shudder ran through her small frame then she stepped away from the other half of her body. The right side and the left side reconfigured until she was as thin as a rail but still resumed the lizard like shape. The left side jumped off the monitor's case and skirted up the ceiling with delicate magnetic claws to the zip-drone resting in sleep mode. The right side tapped into a data port on the monitor and streamed the access codes to the zip-drone through her other half.

"The breach has shut down the entire system," commented Clocker when he heard his colleagues near the station. "But we'll be in business as soon as the access codes are streamed. Then we'll be able to have control over every optic down here." Clocker whisked his servos across the keyboard to finish the last of the access authorization.

"What about the Center? Has the Driller reached it yet?" asked Turbulence as he overlooked Clocker's shoulder to view the onlining camera feeds.

"Uh, no the Driller has reached it yet," he replied in a tight voice and his blue optics shuttered once. "A group of misfortunate transporters were caught in the way of the Driller's path."

"Oh. . . that's unfortunate."

"Um, yes, very much so."

Ultraviolet pinged the sector chiefs impatiently. "How much longer until those feeds are up?"

Clocker looked at the larger quadruped and replied to his comlink aloud. "Streaming now."

The camera feeds streamed live to the monitor and 12,078 images burst in an array of color and darkness. They interconnected together into a honeycomb of data, when selected they would enlarge to present the camera feed with the traffic lane ID and section stamped in the corner. The lower left corner of the monitor's data was already in static.

The blue and gray mech gathered the data together to analyze where the Driller currently was. The images formed a sort of grid system of all the traffic tunnels; they all were strategically placed to give a two-sided box of depth and position. Clocker scrolled through the layers until he reached the level they were currently on, he motioned towards his partner to assist him. Microburst connected back up with her other half and joined Clocker with processing the images and IDs.

After a few seconds of rapid scanning and scrolling, Clocker zoned in on the latest destroyed feed. Wherever the Driller went, it appeared that it destroyed the zip-drones along the way leaving only a few online.

"Here he is," called Clocker. "He hasn't made a move to the inner ring yet, but it looks like he's heading back out to come around again. Hold on, wait a second." The camera feeds zoomed out to show the two-sided box formation. A tracker was placed on the Driller as he moved through the outer rings of the older mines. But, down in the right corner were camera feeds the blinked into static at an alarming pace.

A clattering bang echoed up the shaft behind them and the tension cables on the lift vibrated. Ultraviolet and Microburst honed in on the sound and UV's hackle plates rose in a deep growl, making the sector chiefs look back. The quadruped trotted towards the plank on the lift and shot a scan down the shaft.

Microburst chittered and snapped in communication with Ultraviolet as he read off numbers through his own way of communicating. Microburst climbed the curved wall of the traffic tunnel and latched onto a zip-drone and activated it. The zip-drone whirred to life and its appendages with laser adaptions pulled in before it zipped down the dark tunnel.

Microburst had disappeared form sight in a matter of seconds, leaving the sector chiefs stumped. "Where's she going UV?"

The remaining quadruped's hackles did not lower as he replied to Turbulence in a clipped tone. "There is another one in the mines. Bigger than the one we saw."

Turbulence's hydraulics froze and his processor sputtered for a second. Another Driller? But, that's impossible! "Clocker, where is it heading?"

"Straight to the Center," replied Clocker in an emotionless voice as he watched the cameras blink into static.

Turbulence swore under his breath and flexed his servos with anxiety. "Do you have contact with the other sector chiefs?"

"I just notified them. They've already sent a Spec Ops agent to the surface to alert command. But . . . what can we do?"

"We need to evacuate the mines and prepare one of the heavy ton carriers for emergency evacuation if the aerial transports fail," comlinked Ultraviolet. "We have a couple hundred mechs in all of the wrong places since both of the Drillers are showing circular predatory strategies."

"Right, but how do we get them away from here?" asked Clocker.

There was a moment of silence, even Ultraviolet was stumped and his quick-witted processor could not think of anything soluble.

"Surface explosions. Big and loud enough to draw their attention," spoke up Turbulence. "Get me Cog, Slagmite, and Torque."

…. …. ….

Microburst shifted her hold on the zip-drone as it whizzed around another bend. The hyperactive motor shrilled as she urged it to go past its limits. Graphite and dust in the air blasted against the delicate plates and gears in her face while the wind roared through her audios, in all of her life she had _never_ traveled _this fast_.

The tunnels were swathed in darkness, but the red gate lights on the sealant doors steadily rushed past her peripheral vision. The zip-drone switched tracks and its motor shifted gears when the track took them straight down and gravity took over. She huddled closer to the small insect-like robot and hoped that she would be able to hold on when it pulled out of its dive.

Microbursts sensitive audios picked up the subsonic sounds of metal grinding against blades and a hot heavy-performance engine roaring through the walls, which would be her only warning. In a flash of broken steel and harsh drilling lights, the second Driller broke through the tunnel's paneling in a spectacular show. This Driller was much larger and heavily armored with sharpened plating around cog-like mouth and along its back. Long, barbed appendages lashed out and struck against the walls as it pulled itself through the tunnels. Microburst instantly recognized the signs of a trained beast, unlike the wild Driller from before.

Drill-bot, as she dubbed it, gave chase to the little zip-drone she was ridding. The deadly, roaring monster behind her kept equal pace with the small drone as they twisted and rose through tunnels. The zip-drone rocketed upward and soon a red-orange glow enveloped Microburst's frame and she knew she was going to be swallowed alive in its death pit.

She felt the heat from the friction on the Drill-bots teeth and she saw one of the tentacles cut through the rail the zip-drone followed. The little drone lost its grip on the rail and it wobbled and crashed into the side of the wall. Microburst released her hold and she freefell, heading straight to the pit of spinning teeth and death.

In a brilliance of motion, she split apart and her two halves kicked off of each other and shot towards the shaft's walls. Working in tandem, they flattened themselves into any crevice they could find as Drill-bot engulfed the zip-drone. Blades and spinning metal whipped and sheared off the metal rings around the steam vent Microburst's halves hid in. The metal around the rim grew red with the friction.

She huddled as far back as she could until Drill-bot punched through the ceiling of the shaft. Debris bounced off the walls and crashed as dim light filtered past the beast. When the shadow was gone, Microburst unfolded her small forms and collapsed in the vent. Her spark core pulsed hotly in her chest and her joints felt weary. She had never been this scared in her life.

She had been that close to offlining.

But others would not be so lucky.

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**A/N:** The Difference between the Driller and Drill-bot is that the Driller is wild, untamed, but can be guided/persuaded to do things. The Drill-bot is Shockwave's pet, the one that shows up in DOTM. Though, most characters will know Drill-bot as Driller in later chapters. (Drill-bot came directly from the movie, you can catch it when Shockwave says it while reading subtitles, but who does that besides me?)

Read and Review, it makes me happy.


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